So I left my bike at my dads last night since it was raining and he took it out a bit today... And filled it back up with 87 unleaded fuel (I always use premium). Is this bad? Can I just ride this tank out? He told me he only uses unleaded on his 2008 fatboy so he assumed my iron could use it as well...

Thanks!

 

it will be fine. Just pay attention and see if it makes it run bad. If it does, run that tank out or low and go back to your usual.

 

Should be fine. You may not even notice a difference but my guess is you will if you pay attention. Just run it out and go back to the good stuff. You can also try just running half out and then refilling. It'll boost the octane a little as you run it out.

 

It's not a question of it being unleaded, but that it's 87 octane. Moco says all EFI Sporties should have 91+ octane, but with the 883's lower compression ratio, you shouldn't have a problem. Just avoid hard accelerations till you burn the tank off.

 

As cHARLEY says - all gas today is unleaded. Can`t buy leaded gas anymore - it`s the octane - I`d run it half an re-fill with 91+ or better yet, syphon it out and use it in the lawnmower and refill.

 

Yup, what he said!

 

My bike requires 87 but i think it runs undeniably better when the engine is not up to temp on premium. I still use the regular because it runs perfectly fine when warmed up.

 

i had to fill with 87 today cuz its all they had. i usually use 91 but i think it actually ran better. kinda wierd cuz it was hot as hell today

 

my 2010 883n owners manual (generic sportster manual) says 91... but, the frame of the bike says 89. im gonna go with the frame.
further muddying the waters:
the manual states 91 octane and then 95 octane for the 'ron' method. if one is to assume 91 is the 'roz' method of calculation then the manual recommends 93 octane roz/ron for all 2010 sporties (look at your local gas pump and you will see roz/ron in fine print near the octane number).

higher octane than required will give no real benefits. conversely, lower octane than required can cause real harm.

 

Assuming you live in the USA, Canada, or Brazil, the 91 (or higher) octane listed in your Owners Manual, as well as the prominent octane numbers posted on virtually all gas pumps, is (R+M)/2.

(R+M)/2 is the average of RON (road octane number) and MON (motor octane number).

ROZ stands for Reguläre Octan-Zahl which translates to Regulation Octane Number. ROZ is the German equivalent of RON.